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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Front Cover Art for the new Ibbetson 30 is by the artist Bridget Galway. Both front and back covers were designed by Steve Glines; the back cover art is by artist Irene Koronas- The issue should be out in late November.

Monday, October 17, 2011

In 2011, The Book of Arrows by Mike Amado, edited by Jack Scully and Nancy Brady Cunningham, was published by Cervena Barva Press, Somerville, Massachusetts. A sixty-two page book, The Book of Arrows is a well-written, well-edited, well-published, and well-designed poetry book. Even the cover with its bright turquoise color and its thirteen white-gray-black feathers welcomes you into this sometimes humorous, sometimes painful, sometimes witty, sometimes sad, and always honest read.

Poet Mike Amado passed away on January 2, 2009 after a twenty-one year long battle with kidney disease. He was thirty-three years old. An active member of the Bagel Bards, Somerville, Massachusetts, Amado also headed Poetry: The Art of Words and The Poetry Showcase, in Plymouth, Massachusetts with Jack Scully who currently continues these two poetry happenings.

The Book of Arrows is about Mike‘s life and how he dealt with everyday situations, especially his physical illness. His descriptions, metaphors, changing tone of voice, and use of rhythm make this book worthy for repeated readings. But it‘s his use of ―color throughout the book that makes this book very special.

Early in the book, in ―I Love Rock-N-Roll…‖, Amado writes, ―There are many colors in the spectrum./I‘m playing around with colors in words/until I can find the color I own.‖ Throughout The Book of Arrows, Amado uses actual ―colors in words‖ as well as metaphoric ―colors in words‖ to find out who the ―I‖, the speaker of these poems, is. Amado seems to suggest that once the speaker discovers his favorite color or colors, he will find himself as individual. He uses color in words tactfully and effectively, as seen in ―Old School Ways:

A boy is going to give himself a Mohawk.
For a summer, he lets his hair grow long.
He shaves the sides with his dad‘s razor
then dyes it purple,
[the only color of photo ink he could steal].

The colorful image of a boy with a purple Mohawk is vividly described here. Amado has the boy testing out his cultural identity.
In ―Denim-jacket Back Patch‖, Amado writes about a jacket:
Charcoal-gray with slashes of acid wash
was my first jacket. Badass by itself.
But with the Number of the Beast
patched on the back…
total freakin‘ metal.

Here Amado suggests the darkness and worn out value of the jacket is something to be cherished, admired. The ―charcoal-gray with slashes of acid wash implies the tough guy image.
Are these the colors in words that the speaker wants to own – or just kid around with - as Amado creates?

Amado‘s visual color in words is seen in ―His Body Lies – But Still He Roams where the speaker says, ―the autumn sky burned a blaze of orange.Amado paints with words here.

In ―In Prayer‖, Amado‘s sky hues change from orange to ―blue-yellow‖. He seems to like to have a variety of sky colors.

The word ―orange‖ appears once again in ―You‘ll Never Be a Pro Powwow Dancer‖. The speaker recalls:

All my regalia is gifted.
My breastplate is Crow, my elk-skin war shirt
is Lakota/Sioux.
And my ribbon shirts were made from table cloths
of red and gingham, but no one would ever guess.
All I have is my stoic, camera-hating glare
and high cheek bones to carry the look.
Those Fancy-dancers have regalia that cost thousands,
(or so they say). They have big feathers and tingle-bells
that sound like fire alarms when they walk into
the quiet men‘s room.
And all the colors match. Turquoise and orange belt
with turquoise and orange arm bands and matching
ribbons that dangle from the head band
and never get caught in their feather earrings
when they do the Grass Dance.

Amado has articulately described a Powwow dance scene, with all the trimmings. This long stanza poem works effectively because of Amado‘s colors in words! The lines ―And my ribbon shirts were made from table cloths/of red and gingham… and ―And all the colors match. Turquoise and orange belt/with turquoise and orange arm bands and matching ribbons…
Sparkle. Without the ―red and gingham‖ and ―turquoise and orange‖ color words, the situation would be difficult to imagine.
In the poem, ―She Who Gave Me Words‖, the color ―orange‖ again mentioned:

Mother is a mystery.
She styled her hair herself; even after
Two kids.
She would sway her neck when a man
Gave her a compliment,
A demure giggle, intentional coolness.
She walked me to school on that first day
Wearing an orange miniskirt
And a psychedelic blouse.

Here Amado writes playfully and skillfully. The words seem to flow gently and then twists into a lively image. Is orange the color the speaker wants to ―own‖, or call his own? Maybe or maybe not.

In ―Tea and Ghosts‖, Amado describes a cup of ―strong tea settling ―In coffee-brown mug/drizzled with half & half, white cube dissolving all the/ words that failed to make the radar or just failed‖. The colors of ―coffee-brown‖, ―half & half and a ―white cube‖ are again visual.
The images seem so real that perhaps they are actually are.

Later in ―Tea and Ghosts‖, Amado writes:

I felt a sunless chill one cold morning, five years old.
I asked my nana for a cup of tea. Churning hot yet
fragile as peacock butterflies, it held the scent of
blossoms from Ceylon, and its history of laborers
sweating in line rooms, specters separating leaf from stem.
Amado has captured those ―hot yet fragile as peacock butterflies and created an image almost as colorful as a rainbow. Perhaps the speaker‘s fragility reflects upon Amado‘s own physical health.
And the phrase ―it held the scent of blossoms from Ceylon‖ is brilliant.

Throughout the book, Amado uses the word ―white‖ as well as the word ―burning‖. In ―Watch Over Me‖, he brings these two words together:

I developed IBS
when I was 17—
I thought the dead
were watching me.

Grandma said
when the floor creaks 4
and walls seem to
push like lungs,
that‘s my Grandpa
whom I never met.

I have his features,
his hair line.
He‘d recognize
my skin tone—

White maple, newly split—
burning
before becoming
fire wood.

The ―White maple‖ going up in flames is a strong image, as is its ―burning‖. The color imagery is there. In a later poem, ―The Poet‘s Fire‖, Amado writes that he would rather be cremated than buried. Perhaps this wish is what the speaker is implying.

Near the end of The Book of Arrows, in the poem, ―November 7, 2008‖, Amado writes, ―The world is beautiful colors. Even mauve and lime-green can have their say./It took a lot of coloring to make this mural./Even a rainbow over rooftops/can change the cloud.// ‗Free at last?‘ Maybe./But we‘re here; black, white, Native,/Chicano, and queer; and with the audacity to be./At last change.

It seems that Amado‘s speaker has found that the color(s) that he would like to own aren‘t stagnant. And that there are many different colors that make up his world. What a wonderful outlook on life, especially with all the obstacles Amado faced because of his physical illness.

The Book of Arrows is probably autobiographical yet it has literary value as well. Amado‘s use of color in words indicates such prowess. This book is an excellent read!

OH Don't ,She Said..a poem/song project

( Preview and Purchase--click on pic) Oh Don’t, She Said ~ by Jennifer Matthews. Jennifer wrote this song after her friend and notable poet, Doug Holder, showed her his poem: “Oh don’t, she said, it’s cold.” After reading it, Jennifer felt inspired and heard a song in it. She had to change some of the words to make it work lyrically with the music, but she made sure to stay close to the original poem as much as possible. Jennifer played all the instruments on it and engineered it. It was mixed by Phil Greene at Normandy Sound, who worked with the likes of Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen and many, many other noted artists. Doug wrote it after a conversation he had with his mother while riding on a train to New York City. It is dedicated to her, Rita Holder. Genre: Rock: Acoustic Release Date: 2014

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So Spoke Penelope by Tino Villanueva

(Click on picture to order now!) "An intense poetic hovering over a situation of prolonged expectation....The poems in SO SPOKE PENELOPE are simply amazing, whether in the form of an apostrophe to the absent Odysseus or to the Gods, whether in a narrative past-tense mode or in the immediacy of the lived present, whether in the staccato of monosyllables or in the exuberance of unusual compounds, whether they employ Greek-feeling pentameter lines, alliteration, or anaphora. This poetic cycle shows that the whole range of human experience is contained in Penelope of Ithaca."—Werner Sollors

Visitors from around the country and world...( Click on real time view for complete list)

New From Muddy River Books: Eating Grief at 3AM" by Doug Holder

(To order click on picture) “There is a sad, sweet nostalgia in Holder’s Eating Grief at 3 AM, a sense of loss and sadness for the places and the people who were a part of those scenes: the hunchback, the Tennessee Williams’ half lost blondes, the turbaned men and the discarded move nostalgically through life. Yet Holder finds something almost like beauty or knowledge in the abandoned warehouses with weeds crawling to the roof. He imagines when Mrs. Plant, an old art teacher, was an enigmatic young woman ‘feverishly taking notes about the paintings, a love note stuffed in a pocket of her winter coat.’ There are always dreams, even if never fulfilled. There is so often the sense of time passing, of letting go-- letting go of people, letting go of Harvard Square Theater and the Wursthaus, balms that seemed like they would always be there. And they are and always will be in Holder’s moving poems.” — Lyn Lifshin, Author of Cold Comfort (Black Sparrow Press) "

The Dark Opens by Miriam Levine

(To order click on picture) Awarded the Autumn House Poetry Prize. “This is a wondrous, spiritually tender book,” writes Denise Duhamel. From Mark Doty: “Somehow these effortless poems manage to be deeply connected to the solid physical world of friends and children, husband and neighbors, but also touch upon an airy, unfettered interiority . . . they are both straightforward and complicated at once, both earthly and awash in a world of light.” Levine’s memoir “Devotion” soon to be reissued in paperback.

Elizabeth Lund Interviews Doug Holder-Founder of the Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene

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With Robert Lowell and his Circle by Kathleen Spivack

(Click on image to order the book) "Please join us for the book launch, Sunday , December 2, 2012--4 to 6 P.M. Co-sponsored by UPNE, the Harvard Bookstore & the Grolier Poetry Bookshop, Cambridge, MA. Short presentation, lots of refreshments. In 1959, Kathleen Spivack won a fellowship to study at Boston University with Robert Lowell. Her fellow students were Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, among others. The book looks at the work of poetry, as well as lifelong friendships, despair, addiction, perseverance and survival, and at how social changes altered lives and circumstances. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, this memoir illuminates the lives and thoughts of some of the most influential artists of the twentieth century."

Please donate to the Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene- keep us alive!

(Click on Picture to order) "Starting with Allen Ginsberg and ending with Charlie Parker, Sam Cornish takes us on a whirlwind tour of some of the livelier segments of 1950s and early ’60s American culture. With non-stop energy, syncopated rhythms, and a fast pace that keeps you humming as you turn the pages, Cornish visits a wide array of writers, musicians, and films, stopping along the way to visit local poetry scenes and pay tribute to the homeless and poor. Calling on Jack Kerouac, Langston Hughes, Marlon Brando, Miles Davis and a host of others, Cornish makes us feel the excitement of those times, even as he and his companions absorb the complex and often disturbing history of what he aptly calls “My Young America.” — Martha Collins

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click on pic for more info.....( Sherill Tippins--"Inside the Dream Palace: The Life and Times of New York's Legendary Chelsea Hotel.") " I love your introduction, and fervently hope that Somerville never meets anything like the Chelsea Hotel's fate. It's always a pleasure to read your blog -- even when I'm not in it!" Alan Kaufman ( Editor of the "Outlaw Bible of American Literature")-- " ...a terrific blog..." Perry Glasser--( Winner of the Gival Press Novel Award): " The blog is very impressive." Elizabeth Swados ( Tony Nominated Playwright, Guggenheim Award Winner ): "Thanks you so much for this review on your blog. It helps so much, not just in terms of getting people to know that it exists, but also makes me feel that someone has gotten what I have tried to do. I wish you the very best." Marguerite G. Bouvard, PhD-- Resident Scholar Women's Research Center-Brandeis University: " I love reading your blog. What a refreshing respite from the New York Times. Thanks for all you do for poetry." Ed Hamilton--author of "Legends of the Chelsea Hotel" commenting on Chelsea Hotel article: " That's a great piece. Thanks for sending the link along." Richard Moore-- Finalist/T.S.Eliot Prize " I have just read your wonderful interview of the wonderful Eric Greinke!" Steven Ford Brown (Former Director of Research for the George Plimpton Interview Series "The Writer in America"): " You did a great job with the Clayton Eshleman interview, especially the personal stuff. So much better than doing the dry talk about literary polemics." Celia Gilbert (Pushcart Prize in Poetry) "Doug thanks so much for that fine shout out. I'm delighted how you put it all together!" Karen Alkalay-Gut, PhD ( Professor of English-Tel Aviv University) "Doug, I enjoy your posts immensely" Lise Haines ( Writer-in-Residence, Emerson College-Boston) "I love your blog!" "( Elizabeth Searle- Executive Board/Pen New England) : "Like your blog. I like the interview with Rick Moody." Ploughshares Staff- " Everyone at Ploughshares is a big fan of your blog." Suzanne Wise (Publicity Director Poets House-NYC): "Thank you so much for this wonderfully thoughtful portrait of our new home! You really "get us" and you translate that understanding vividly. I love the way you talk about Stanley's ( Kunitz) giant dictionary as a relic from another age. We're glad to preserve such relics." Kathleen Bitetti ( Chief Curator Medicine Wheel Productions/ Former Director of the Artists Foundation--Boston.) " Love your interview with Marc Zegans...wonderful blog!"

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Ibbetson Street is now in a partnership with Endicott College!

(Click on to go to the Endicott College Website)Ibbetson will be supported in part and formally affiliated with Endicott College.

The Arts and Literature in Somerville, Mass.: Off the Shelf with Doug Holder

( Click on picture to go to column) A weekly column in The Somerville News--Somerville's only independent newspaper!

The Somerville News Writers Festival Nov. 13, 2010

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ISCS PRESS--WE WILL PUBLISH YOUR BOOK!

Boston's leading co-publisher... (Click on title for more information)

The Boston Globe: Poetic Healing at McLean Hospital

This was the lead article in the Living/Arts section of the Boston Globe. (Feb. 2000) It has to do with Doug Holder's poetry workshops at McLean Hospital and the history of this literary landmark. (Click on pic for full article)

(Click on picture to view) A Production of Somerville Community Access TV's show " Poet to Poet : Writer to Writer." Moderator: Gloria Mindock, Producer: Doug Holder, Director: Bill Barrell

"The Paris of New England" Interviews with Poets and Writers" by Doug Holder

( Click on pic to order this and other Ibbetson Press titles) Interviews with poets and writers from the Paris of New England Somerville, Mass. " Thank you for your interview book. I read it straight through last night and enjoyed it very much...So many good ideas in one book." Eric Greinke-- Presa Press "Very engrossing collection of Holder's interviews, with a wide range of writers about their lives and work. Included are Mike Basinski, Mark Doty, Robert Creeley, Ed Sanders, Hugh Fox, Robert K. Johnson, and Pagan Kennedy.-- Chiron Review

Advertise with a popular online and print literary column in the heart of the Paris of New England

Reach a wide swath of the Boston Area literary community through The Somerville News' "Off the Shelf" literary Column with Doug Holder. The column is online and in a weekly print edition that reaches 15,000 readers. For more information click on picture.

Grolier Poetry Book Shop

" Poetry is honored every day at the Grolier Poetry Book Shop in Harvard Square, the oldest continuous poetry book shop in the United States. We stock over 15,000 volumes and spoken word CD's. Special orders are welcome. Come and visit us at 6 Plympton St. or online http://grolierpoetrybookshop.org (click on picture)

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Poetry Workshops With Doug Holder

( Click on Picture for Doug Holder's website) Doug Holder has led poetry workshops, both for indviduals and groups for a decade now. Robert Olen Butler ( Pulitzer Prize Winner for Literature) wrote of Holder's work: " I've been greatly enjoying your poems. You have a major league talent, man." Available for individual or groups. Expert in gently helping the novice into poetry and the poetry scene. Reasonable Rates. Available for editing. Call 617-628-2313 for more information. Or email: dougholder@post.harvard.edu

Ibbetson Street Press

No One Dies at the Au Bon Pain by Doug Holder

Poems of Boston and Just Beyond: From The Back Bay to the Back Ward by Doug Holder

A poetry collection that deals with Boston, and Holder's experiences working on the psychiatric units at McLean Hospital

Of All the Meals I Had Before by Doug Holder

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The Man in the Booth in the Midtown Tunnel (To order click on picture)

A new poetry book by Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene Founder, Doug Holder. "I'm enjoying 'The Man in the Booth in the Midtown Tunnel' -- perfect poems, especially in that ambiance." Dan Tobin -- Director of Creative Writing--Emerson College-Boston, Mass./ " It is quintessential Holder& bristles with sardonic wit. Congratulations."-- Eric Grienke (founder of Presa Press) / " I finished "The Man in the Booth in the Midtown Tunnel'...greatly enjoyed the menagerie of characters and imperfect human beings I met along the way. Excellent work Doug!"-- Paul Steve Stone ( Creative Director W.B.Mason and the autthor of "Or So It Seems.") / "I am reminded in the pages of this collection of meeting, a year or two before her death, the artist Alice Neel, who painted gorgeously surreal ironic portraits of famous and ordinary people in the 1930's and 40's--and shivering as she looked me over. Doug Holder looks at the world through a similarly sharp and amused set of eyes...Rich nuggets of humor and wry reflection throughout this collection." Pamela Annas ( Asst. Dean of Humanities U/Mass Boston/Reviewer Midwest Book Review) “....particularly liked The Tunnel—a little masterpiece!” Kathleen Spivack ( Permanent Visiting Professor of Creative Writing/American Literature at the University of Paris) "I want to tell you this was just about the best chap I ever read, I absolutely DEVORED it..."--( Robin Stratton--Boston Literary Magazine) "An acclaimed Boston-area poet writes about characters who have captured his interest over the years -- a colonial dame with purple hair, a postal worker ready to be returned to his sender, J. Edgar Hoover's secret love -- in this skillfull collection of short, free form poems." (Perkins School of the Blind Website) Click on picture to access Cervena Barva Press

About Me

Doug Holder is the founder of the independent literary press Ibbetson Street. He teaches writing at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston and Endicott College in Beverly, Mass. He is the arts/editor of The Somerville News, and for the past twenty years has run poetry groups at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. His poetry and prose have appeared in the Bay State Banner, The Boston Globe, The Boston Globe Magazine, Rattle, Endicott Review, Long Island Quarterly, Toronto Quarterly and many others. He holds an M.A. in Literature from Harvard University.

Poems From The Left Bank: Somerville, Mass. by Doug Holder

( Click on picture to order) "The poems are full of life, witty and sympathetic and sharp all at once. And most of all, full of an engaged affection for the place and people. If Burns is Scotland's Bard, you are certainly Somerville's..." Kate Chadbourne, PhD ( Lecturer-Harvard University-Celtic Languages and Literature)

From The Paris of New England: Interviews with Poets and Writers" by Doug Holder

(Click on picture to order) Interviews by Doug Holder from the Paris of New England: Somerville, Mass. "I am impressed. A lot of great interviews compiled over the years."-- Brian Morrisey--Poesy Magazine / " A very engrossing read..."--Chiron Review / "Doug Holder knows how to ask important questions"--New Pages

Advertise with the Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene.

Doug Holder founder says: "Reach a wide audience of poets, writers, editors and publishers, Have your ad linked to your site. The Boston area Small Press and Poetry Scene is well known in the small press community..." For information about rates, etc...email: dougholder@post.harvard.edu or call 617-628-2313